The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-08-13
Niagara Falls.
BY ANTHONY TRoLLoPE.

Of all the sights on this earth of ours which tourists travel to see,-at least of all those which have seen,- I am inclined to give the palm to the Falls of Niagara. In the catalogue of such sights I intend to include all buildings, pictures, statues and won- ders of art made by mems hands, and also all beauties of nature prepared by the Creator for the delight of His creatures. This is long word but as far as my taste and judgment go, it is justified. I know no other one thing so beautiful, so glorious and so pow erful would not by this be under stood as saying that traveller wishing to do the best with his time should first of all places seek Niagara. In visiting Florence he may learn almost all that modern art can teach. At Rome he will be brought to under stand the cold hearts, correct eyes and cruel ambition of the old Latin race. In Switzerland he will surround him. self with flood of grandeur and loveliness, and fill himself, if he be ca pablo of such filling, with flood of romance. The tropics will unfold to him all that vegetation in its greatest richness can produce. In Paris he will find the supreme of polish, the ne plus ultra of varnish according to the worlds capability of vanishing and in London he will find the supreme of power, the ne plus uitra of work ac- cording to the worlds capability of working. Any one of such journeys may be more valuable to a man-nay. any one such journey must be more valuable to man, than visit to Mi agara. At Niagara there is that fall of waters alone. But that fall is more graceful than Giotto's tower, more noble than the Apollo. The peaks of the Alps are not so astounding ill their solitude. The valleys of the Blue mountains in Jamaica are less green. The finished glaze of life in Paris is less invariable; and the full tide of trade round the Bank of England is not so inexorably powerful.
 That the waters of Lake Erie have come down in their courses from the broad basins of Lake Michigan, Lake Superior and Lake Huron; that these waters fall into Lake Ontario by the short and rapid river of Niagara, and that the Falls of Niagara are made by a sudden break in the level of this rapid river, is probably known to all who will read this book. All the wa ters of these huge northern inland seas run over that breach in the rocky bot tom of the stream; and thence 1t comes that the flow is nnceasing in its grandeur, and that no eye can perceive difference in the weight, or sound, or violence of the fall, whether it be wis., ted Tn the drouth of autumn, amidst the storms of winter, or after the melting of the upper worlds of ice in the days of the early summer. How many cataracts does the habitual tour ist visit at which the waters fail him? But at Niagara the waters never fail. There it thunders over its ledge in a volume that never ceases and is never dim -nished ;-as it has done from time will do till tens of thousands of years shall see the rocky bed of the river worn away. back to the upper lake.
 It has been said that it matters much from what point the falls are first seen, but to this I demur. It matters, think, very little, or not at all. Let the visitor first see it all,and learn the whereabouts of every point, so as to understand his own position and that of the waters: and then having done that in the way of business, let him proceed to enjoy ment. I doubt whether it be not the best to do this with all sight seeing. lam quite sure that it is the way in which acquaintance may be best and most pleasantly made with a new pie ture.
 The Falls are, as have said, made by sudden breach in the level of the river. All cataracts are, presume, made by such breaches but generally the waters do not fall precipitously as they do at Niagara, and never eise- where. as far as the world vet knows,